Mary Marvel in the Wax Museum
by TailsLovesCosmo
Summary: When Mary Batson walks home from the movie theater one night, she has no idea that she's about to run into a situation that will test even the power of Mary Marvel!


MARY MARVEL AND THE WAX MUSEUM

Chapter One

"The Lurker in the Shadows"

Note: This story takes place in the 1940s and the characters are their original Fawcett Comics versions.

Night. A cold wind blew unwanted newspapers haphazardly down the empty street. Clouds, dark and promising rain, blocked out the stars and most of the full moon.

A young girl, bundled in an expensive coat, hurried down the street, shivering. Mary Bromfield had stayed too long at the movie theater that day, and had come outside to find it had already grown dark. Mary would have called her mother's chauffeur to pick her up if she could have found a phone, but despite having grown up rich, the girl didn't mind a bit of exercise. The possibility of encountering a mugger didn't frighten her, due to the secret she had promised to keep.

Mary Bromfield actually didn't exist. She had been stillborn, although her mother had never been told. The nurse that attended the rich woman had also attended another woman who had died in an accident with her husband just after having twins. The nurse, who had recently passed on, had revealed the truth to Mary's brother, Billy Batson, on her death bed. She had switched Mary Batson with the rich woman's dead baby, and never told anyone until she confessed what she had done to Billy. Before Billy could tell her she was his sister, Mary had been captured by kidnappers who intended to get every cent they could out of the woman Mary had always believed was her mother. Mary had been rescued by the surprise appearance of Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior, who to her shock were revealed to be Billy and his friend Freddy Freeman, who Mary had just met while appearing on a radio program hosted by Billy. When the criminals recovered and captured Billy and Freddy, Mary had shocked all of them, but no one more than herself, by shouting out the magic name "Shazam!" and finding herself with the same powers as her brother, even if the ancient wizard who had given them their special abilities had claimed that hers came from different sources.

Mary felt the first drops of the approaching storm. She shivered, pulled her coat more tightly around her. She considered speaking the wizard's name. As Mary Marvel she would be immune to the cold and rain and could fly home in seconds. But sometimes it seemed to her that transforming into the World's Most Powerful Girl was becoming a habit to avoid making real effort in her life. So far there had been nothing that Mary Marvel couldn't accomplish. There were no challenges as a Marvel, and what was the fun of having everything too easy for you?

What was that? She was sure something had moved in the shadows of an old building she was passing. She increased her pace, the magic word on her lips, but not yet concerned enough to actually speak it. It was probably nothing. A small animal perhaps. Or a trick of the dim lighting from the nearest lamp post down the street. Or perhaps simply a young girl's overactive imagination. After all, she had just watched a murder mystery on the screen.

"Stay calm, Mary," she chided herself. "You're just jumpy from that scary movie. And even if it is someone dangerous, one word and you're completely safe." Despite this, Mary strained her ears for the slightest sound, eyes darting again and again in the direction where she had seen the movement.

Suddenly something raced right across her feet. Instead of shouting the magic word, Mary jumped, almost falling over backwards, and screamed her head off. She felt her face grow warm as she realized it was just a cat. "Sorry about that, kitty," she said, hurrying on her way.

"What is wrong with you?" she demanded. "Panicking because of a little kitty cat? You've faced gangsters with machine guns and mad scientists with giant robots and death rays, and demons from Hades! Why are you so jittery tonight? Because you're Mary Batson, not Mary Marvel? Is that going to be your reaction to every little thing that comes up to trouble you in your life? Oh no, somebody pushed me! I'd better say Shazam and get revenge! Or, goodness me, I broke a nail! This wouldn't have happened if I'd been Mary Marvel and had unbreakable nails! You're using the wizard's power as a crutch, just like the one poor Freddy needs to walk when he's not Junior. You're a baby, Mary Batson! A big, silly baby!"

Mary turned the corner and found herself facing a darker street than the one she'd just passed through. Several lamp posts had either burned out or been smashed by vandals, possibly juvenile delinquents. There seemed to be a lot of them these days. She'd heard arguments that such behavior was caused by gangster movies or swing music or comic books or the war, although she personally felt the problem was bad parenting.

Mary passed in front of a large old apartment house. The lamp post was out and not a single light shone in the building. Mary paused at first before entering the dark pools of shadow in front of the domicile, then chided herself again and stepped into the shadows. It somehow felt colder here than it had been anywhere else. Mary shivered, speeding up her steps. The staccato sound of her heels against unseen pavement made her heart race. She swallowed hard, willing herself not to panic. Not to run. Not to shout Sha…

Suddenly something grabbed her from behind. A coat covered arm wrapped around her neck. A gloved hand covered her mouth. Mary's heart pounded wildly. Her entire body quivered. Her legs felt like jelly.

"Fool!" she cursed herself. "You had your chance! Why did you have to act all brave?"

Mary struggled desperately. Not to break free. She didn't need to get loose. All she needed was to get her mouth uncovered long enough to say one little word. But her attacker had a grip of iron. Then she saw his other hand. Saw a flicker of light as a stray moonbeam reflected off of the object in that hand.

A knife. Coming slowly but steadily towards her face. Her throat.

Mary's eyes filled with tears. She was going to die, and she could have prevented it so easily. Billy would be heartbroken. She was his only relative, except for an evil old uncle who had tossed Billy out into the street when he was little and stolen his inheritance. True, Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior would scour the city, the country, the entire world if necessary, to find her killer. They'd get him, sooner or later, she had absolutely no doubt of that. But it wouldn't do her much good…

Desperate, Mary drove her heel into her opponent's leg with all her might, at the same time sinking her teeth into his gloved hand. To her horror the attacker showed absolutely no sign of feeling a thing. If his hand had jerked just a little bit, she'd be saved. But he didn't even seem to notice, although she was certain her teeth had to be hurting his hand. She could feel it give a little through the thin cotton glove. Why didn't he cry out? Whisper a threat? Even breath?

Wait. He wasn't breathing. How? Why? But she didn't have time to think about that now. Her fingers grabbed at the hand holding her mouth shut. She'd heard from Billy that sometimes you could injure someone by twisting their pinky finger really hard. She grabbed the attacker's little finger and pulled with all her might.

She felt the would be killer's pinky bend, reaching the breaking point. Then bend further. Was he double-jointed? Then she heard a soft snapping sound. The finger moved easily now. As if…as if she'd not only broken it, but broken it right off the hand. Yet the other hand, the one with the knife, continued its slow movement towards her throat without interruption. How could he not be in terrible pain? No time to dwell on it. She grabbed his ring finger, pulled. At last got her mouth free. Just as she felt the blade touch the flesh of her neck she screamed out the word "SHAZAM!"

The night sky was lit up by a flash of lightning. A roar of thunder shook the ground beneath Mary's feet. She felt the now familiar tingle shoot through her body, strengthening her. Turning her into something more than just human.

The knife broke on Mary Marvel's throat. She tossed her attacker off of her effortlessly, expecting him to hit the ground and either be knocked unconscious or beg her not to hurt him any further. She was stunned when he simply came at her again, fingers curled as if he meant to strangle her now that his weapon was destroyed.

Despite being invulnerable now, Mary had developed a fear of this strange unknown assailant. She clenched her fist and punched him, not hard enough to kill a human, but enough to send him flying. While he in fact did go flying, he quickly got back up yet again. Once again Mary was afraid. He still hadn't made a sound. And being struck by the World's Mightiest Girl hadn't seemed to injure him.

"Who…what are you?" Mary demanded, involuntarily taking a step back. "Why aren't you injured? Why are you still attacking me?" There was no response. "Say something!" she screamed. "Say something, you…you…monster!"

But the figure remained as silent as ever as it approached her again. Mary clenched her other fist. "Stay back!" she yelled. "I'll hurt you! I'll hurt you bad!" Mary had never once even considered using her powers to severely injure someone, let alone kill. Her goal had always been to knock her enemies out and toss them in jail where they couldn't harm anyone. But Mary was afraid. For the first time since she'd been given the power, Mary Marvel, not Mary Batson, was afraid. She felt her heart begin to race again. It was a strange feeling. This creature, whatever it was, couldn't cause her physical damage, she was sure of that. But psychologically, it was beating her. The courage that had poured into her when she'd gained the power was now seeping out of her again. If only it would say something! Anything! She couldn't even see its face in the dark shadows. And that hand that had grabbed her… Mary suddenly snatched at the hand and whipped off its glove. And that was when, for the first time, it was Mary Marvel, not Mary Batson, that screamed her head off.

Because the finger she had broken had remained inside of the glove. She could see the impression of it, feel it inside of the cloth. She dropped the glove in horror, then looked at the creature's hand. No blood. Why wasn't he bleeding? Why wasn't he in pain?

The creature struck her in the face. Mary didn't feel a thing, of course. Not physically that is. But as the thing's hand made contact with her, she cringed, still afraid of her mysterious attacker.

Whatever it was, this latest attempt to kill her seemed to have finally convinced it to give up that attempt. It ran past her down the dark street.

Mary watched it for a few moments, then forced herself to go after it. She was immune to its attacks, but normal people weren't. She couldn't let this monster, whatever it was, get away from her!

Suddenly another figure stepped from the shadows. She couldn't see its face either. She did see it held a gun, but that didn't worry her. Guns and knives, she could understand. She knew they couldn't harm her in her Marvel form. The figure fired six shots at her. She realized to her surprise that she had to force herself not to dodge them. These creatures were terrorizing her, and she was sick of it.

Mary punched the second figure. Harder than she'd intended to hit it. The newcomer crashed into the wall of the building. Fell like a rag doll. Then it got up again. Got up without a sound, just like the first figure had when she struck it.

"How many of you creatures are there?" Mary demanded, taking a step back. She didn't expect an answer. And she didn't get one.

The creature tossed something at her. Again Mary had to force herself not to dodge. The object burst open on the sidewalk at her feet, releasing a thick black smoke. Mary couldn't tell if it was poisonous or not, as a Marvel she was impervious to such things, but it did obscure her vision. She clenched her fists and stepped into it, despite the growing fear inside of her invulnerable body. She couldn't let these things get away! She swung her arms blindly in the smoke but failed to connect with anything. By the time she'd exited the cloud of smoke it was out of sight. No! She had to catch it! Catch both of them!

Mary leaped into the air. She had no idea how it worked, had never really thought about it, but as Mary Marvel she could fly just by thinking about it. She flew around the area, searching for the dark figures. Where were they? Darn it! They must have gone inside of a building! She'd never find them now! What a pity one of the powers the wizard had given them wasn't x-ray vision!

Mary flew about in ever widening circles, hoping to find some sign of where her attackers had fled. Some clue of their current whereabouts. Darn it! Nothing!

Even with the wisdom that she'd gained from the goddess Minerva, Mary couldn't think of a way to locate the figures now. She couldn't very well break into every house and store trying to find them. Too bad she didn't have x-ray vision like that guy in the comic books Billy and Freddy were always trying to get her to read. She finally turned and flew towards her brother's apartment building. Perhaps together the Marvel Family could figure out what to do next.

To be continued


End file.
